Print Magazine

November 2, 2009 Issue

The Editors on Obama’s Nobel, Alexander Cockburn on the method behind the Nobel Prize madness, Calvin Trillin on the Nobel Committee&#…

Cover art by: Cover design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels

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Editorial

Why the Health Insurance Excise Tax Is a Bad Idea

Max Baucus's scheme to tax the benefits of workers slightly better off--so revenue can be raised for private insurance subsidies--is a lose-lose proposition.

Steve Early and Rand Wilson

New Rules for Schools

The most effective way to fight violence in schools is not the widespread "zero tolerance" model. Thankfully, Clayton County, Georgia, may have the perfect solution.

Amy Bach

Left Turn in Jersey

By embracing the left instead of running to the center, New Jersey's Democratic Governor Jon Corzine has revitalized his once-troubled re-election campaign.

John Nichols

Noted.

GOP obstruction of Obama appointees continues to succeed; an immigration-policing program draws substantial heat; The Nation's Gary Younge receives Britain's prestigious Jam...

The Editors

The ACORN Standard

A growing number of lawmakers are starting to ask: if ACORN's federal funding should be under intense scrutiny, why aren't the billions of dollars going to out-of-control contracto...

Jeremy Scahill

Obama’s Nobel

Did the president deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize? No, of course not. But he still has a chance to earn it.

The Editors

Column

Zooming In on the Year’s Biggest Hoax

If we could get one of the banking lobbyists to float a duct-taped flying saucer balloon, Wolf Blitzer might cover the real hoax.

Robert Scheer

Obama’s Bad Influence

Just because the United States is trying to be a global team player again doesn't mean the game gets better rules.

Naomi Klein

German Party Politics: Color Them Blurry

Leftist parties in Germany offer a range of choices but no cohesive challenge to the right.

Katha Pollitt

A Gift From the Ramparts of Capital…

People shouldn't take Peace Prizes too seriously except under those rare circumstances when a prize committee somewhere gets it right.

Alexander Cockburn

Three Possible Explanations From the Nobel Committee

Calvin Trillin

Letters

Right On, ‘Right On’!

Guatemala City

Kim Phillips-Fein and Our Readers

Feature

Pelosi Champions the Public Option

A Congressional Budget Office report suggesting that a robust public option would actually cut the deficit seems to have lit a fire under Speaker Pelosi.

Lindsay Beyerstein

More OutrAIGe

Nightmare on Wall Street continues--come March 2010, AIG plans on upping the bonuses for its Financial Products division to nearly $200 million, bringing the total to $426 m...

Greg Kaufmann

A Witness to Total War

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the only neutral filmmaker in the country was Julien Bryan. His round-the-clock footage of Warsaw's destruction, assembled in Siege, is ...

Daniel Eagan

Lessons From the Long War and a Blowback World

Will today's US-armed ally be tomorrow's enemy?

Tom Engelhardt

‘War on Terror’ II

Obama makes reassuring noises about constraining executive power and protecting civil liberties, but then adopts whatever appalling policy Bush put in place.

Julian Sanchez

Happy Days?

Happy days are here again--if you're Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

A Female Economics Laureate: Why Only Now?

The first female winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics serves as both a landmark and an alarming reflection of the limited role of women in the physical sciences.

Sarah Stodola

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Some public servants collect their reward after leaving government. Gene Sperling, adviser to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, earned his before.

William Greider

Children of the Occupation

Hundreds of Palestinian children are imprisoned in Israeli jails every year. Their story, overlooked in recent media reports, tells the true cost of the occupation.

Andrea D’Cruz